Questions tagged [paradox]
A paradox is a seemingly true statement or group of statements that lead to a contradiction or a situation which seems to defy logic or intuition. For the short-lived UK sci-fi series, use the tag [paradox-tv], and for the 2010 film staring Kevin Sorbo and Christopher Judge, use the tag [paradox-movie]
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What did Stephen R. Donaldson mean by "there is hope in contradiction"?
One of the many recurring sayings in The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant is said in full by one of the characters (a magic lord named Mhoram) as:
When you have come to the crux, and have no other ...
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Does Doc Brown sabotage himself in Back to the Future 2?
Back in 1955, Doc Emmet Brown is spotted by his past self as he is working on the cable in the park, at which point, the latter asks the unrecognizable white-haired man to "be a pal and hand my ...
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At the end of the first Back to the Future movie, how come Marty can witness the original events happening then wake up to visit an alternate family?
At the end of the first Back to the Future movie, Marty comes back ten minutes early, and sees the events from the start of the movie playing out (him running to the DeLorean and going back to 1955). ...
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Possible time paradox in Arrival [duplicate]
I have just watched Arrival, and there is a scene that has confused me a little bit.
How can this be explained? Is it a paradox, or is it all right?
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Trying to find a time travel short story
A group of scientists had almost cracked time travel - but then started dying in a series of bizarre accidents. They realised that the universe was protecting itself from the paradox of time travel by ...
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What 90's made-for-tv movie featured a time-traveling policeman who left his wife a note from the past?
I recall watching a made for TV movie in the 90's that takes place in the future about a man who works for a time-travel enforcement agency. At the beginning of the movie he got his wife an old copy ...
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What would happen if someone opened a door that is opened with a key of the keymaker from the other side?
In the Matrix Reloaded, Persephone is opening a door in the restaurant using a key from the keymaker, now leading to the Merovingian's chateau 500 miles away instead of the other part of the ...
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What caused the TARDIS to be empty in Father's Day?
In the episode, Father's Day reapers appear due to Rose causing a paradox. "The Doctor walks back to the TARDIS, he senses that something is wrong. When he gets back to the TARDIS and unlocks it with ...
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Do the time travel rules of the Indian movie 24 make sense?
There are basically three kinds of time travel stories in terms of they handle paradoxes:
Stories that obey the Novikov self-consistency principle, like the TV show LOST and the movie Interstellar, ...
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Isn't ending of Terminator 2:Judgement day a time paradox?
I have just started watching the Terminator franchise and finished till 2. But its ending had my mind boggling. If Skynet and Terminator, both are created by Cyberdyne, using the microprocessor that ...
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Story with the continuum hypothesis at the end [duplicate]
When I was in my teens, I think (if so it must have been in the seventies or early eighties), I read a short story about a single person landing in a space ship on a hostile military planet, and then ...
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What type of paradox kills Weeping Angels?
I'm trying to find ways to defeat Angels beside simply getting them to look at each other. For instance, in the episodes “The Time of Angels” and “Flesh and Stone”, you can't get a large group of ...
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Is Loki part of a destiny trap?
In Doctor Strange #385 Loki admits that he wanted to make Dr. Strange stronger for the threads to come, e.g. Damnation. However, in Doctor Strange: Damnation #1 it is established that Doctor Strange (...
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Wouldn't the paradox machine be useful for the Doctor?
If the Doctor built a paradox machine, he could save anyone and do anything he wanted to do, as the Master did. The paradox machine is powerful enough to let the Toclafane kill their ancestors without ...
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When does Professor X lose his ability to walk? [duplicate]
At the end of the X-Men first class movie, magneto deflects a bullet causing it to render professor X - who was a boy at the time - to become paralyzed in his legs. However in The last stand when ...
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